**A review copy of this book was provided by LibraryThing's Early Reviewer Group in exchange for an honest review.**DON’T CALL ME ANGEL has all the right ingredients – compelling opening, tough heroine, and an ending that has the reader wanting to know what happens next. For all these wonderful ingredients, there was definitely something lacking for me that kept me from being wholly engrossed by this prequel. The story opens with Six, an angel who has been cast out of Heaven, literally clawing her way out of Hell. I love the dramatic imagery this scene evokes – an angel clawing her way out of the pits of Hell. She makes it out and into the world above, our world, where she tries to blend in and start a new life. Six escapes with her friend or acquaintance, Alden. While Six feels some empathy for humans and holds some value for human life, Alden does not. Therein lies one level of conflict as Alden rampages against humans and Six tries to stop him. It also goes a little deeper. While Six does have some empathy for humans, she also knows that murdering them will alert the powers that be in Hell of her escape. She doesn’t need the attention. It was a miracle that I’d survived Hell with my sanity intact. I was weak. It had taken me too long to find my morals, and I was unfit to apply them.I found this dichotomy in Six to be interesting and the dramatic potential of it all is exciting – she’s conflicted, she knows what’s right and wrong, she has empathy, but there’s a coldness to her, and it takes her a while to act. Six is also filled with anger and resentment toward humans, towards Heaven, towards Hell. For all the dramatic potential, Six felt almost too distanced, too cold; her lack of emotion kept me from really caring about her and her conflict. I also wanted to feel that internal conflict more. In all fairness, I think it’s hard to develop this in such a short novella but I felt the lack of it nonetheless. Now, the ending…well, played. Nice twist. You learn why she’s named Six and you learn exactly what she’s running from and it makes you want to know more. All in all, I think this was a good prequel to a new series. With a full-length novel, we’ll be able to get the development of the tormented Six that I was left craving. She has such incredible potential to be a more compelling heroine that I’ll read the first book in the series to learn what happens to her.This review is provided courtesy of the site She-Wolf Reads.
